Daily Alta California, Volume 23, Number 7790, 21 July 1871 — Page 1
A Faithful Ex-Slave.
At the head of the editorial columns of the Selma (Ala.) Times and Messenger of Sunday morning appears an obituary of William Farley, a negro, who has been for many years the body servant of the editor of that paper, and, as such, made with him the campaigns of the Confederate army of the Tennessee in 1864 and 1865. We quote: " He was faithful as a slave, and protected the property of his owner more than once during the Yankee invasion of middle Georgia. He was kind-hearted and liberal, and stood square up to white people, voting the Democratic ticket since his enfranchisement. He will be remembered by the registration committee during the election last Fall as the negro who walked up to General Shelby, in whose brigade he had seen some service, and told him that he wanted to register. After registering, he said that he wanted them to tell him if he had the right ticket, showing them a Democratic ticket. General Shelby replied to him that it was the right ticket if he wanted to vote for the Democracy. He said that he did. About that time a dozen or so fifteenth amendments got around him to change his vote, when he replied, 'You are all a set of fools. It is as much as I can do to live here with the white folks voting, and if you negroes had the reins, I know that I would have to leave.' We have spent with him, in the army, many a night, and he has often ministered to our comfort on the march and in the camp. Peace to his ashes. He was a faithful slave."
